Dave Rubin's take on Minneapolis riots, Twitter putting disclaimers on Trump's tweets
Dave Rubin, author of 'Don't Burn This Book,' reacts on 'Fox & Friends.'
YouTube host Dave Rubin said on Friday that, after years of tech giants making “selective decisions” to censor conservatives, President Trump is bringing awareness to the issue after Twitter began to place fact-checks and warnings on the president's tweets.
“The free speech war has been burning for the last three or four years and it seems finally now it is coming to a head,” the author of "Don't Burn This Book" told “Fox & Friends.”
The "Rubin Report" host said that even though he is a libertarian who rejects the idea of the government working with tech giants, he does not see a problem with Trump using executive action in this instance.
“That’s just taking away legal protection. But even with that, we have to be careful with what we ask for because if they have less protection, they then might start policing speech even more carefully,” Rubin said.
Rubin reacted to Twitter, once again, taking action against President Trump, this time censoring a tweet for "glorifying violence" in his late-night response to the ongoing violence in Minneapolis.
Trump said he couldn't just watch the city be overwhelmed by the unrest over the death of George Floyd.
“I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis,” Trump tweeted. “A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right."
A second tweet continued, “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let this happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you.”
A few hours after the president posted those tweets, Twitter added a disclaimer onto the second tweet, which hides the message until users click "view."
"This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible," the disclaimer read.
Trump fired back at Twitter on Friday: “Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!”
Rubin said that Twitter wants to take aim at Trump and his supporters, but the tech company also overlooks tweets calling for violence against the commander in chief.
“You could just search the George Floyd or the Minneapolis hashtag. I mean, there are literally thousands of people rejoicing in violence, calling for violence every time Trump tweets. There are often blue-checked journalists threatening him.”
“And that really is what this is about: it’s the selective decisions that they make that somehow always seem to be against right-leaning or conservative people. I think this thing is just going to keep ramping up throughout the election.”
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This marks the second time Twitter has cracked down on Trump's tweets. Earlier this week, the tech giant added a fact-checking label to the president's tweets sounding the alarm on potential fraud from mail-in voting.
That sparked escalated tensions between him and Twitter, prompting the president to sign an executive order on Thursday that interprets Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) as not providing statutory liability protections for tech companies that engage in censorship and political conduct.
Fox News' Edmund DeMarche and Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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